Aggregator

For most of his life, Bruckner was badly underestimated. His worldly Viennese contemporaries ridiculed him as a pious dolt, a rural church organist with no redeeming cleverness. But despite his unfashionable accent and gauche manners, Bruckner was no country bumpkin. His music, which reflects his dual roles as church organist and composer of symphonies, revels in paradox: it's massive and nuanced, dense and subtle, ancient and modern. Intricate polyphony is draped in sumptuous Wagnerian orchestration. An expansive tone poem morphs into an elaborate fugue. Before our very ears, musical forms adapt and evolve in a state of transcendent flux.

As lawmakers in the Missouri House wait to debate legislation involving the transgender community on Thursday, a pair of big moves are being made in Washington, D.C., in favor of trans youth.

Favazz interviews Kelly Hansen of Foreigner and talks upcoming St. Louis show on July 19th with Loverboy, the band’s final tour, and more!

Source

Russia’s fighting a war in Ukraine and a war at home. As residents express their displeasure with their government, the government’s cameras and facial recognition AI are going into overdrive to ensure Putin and his pals control the narrative. Unfortunately, the Russian government is getting some help from the United States, albeit inadvertently. Russia has […]

After another failed attempt to pass sports betting in Missouri, fans are still in full support. 

Bulldozers were clearing debris through tornado-damaged communities in Glenallen and Marble Hill on Thursday.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, business, and faith-based leaders broke ground Thursday morning to turn over new homeownership opportunities in north St. Louis.

Cheekface, along with special guest Sad Park, will perform live at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room on April 6.

The post Cheekface with Sad Park appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

The Mission Taco Joint 10-year anniversary party, featuring My Posse in Effect (a live tribute to the Beastie Boys) and DJ Mahf, will take place at Delmar Hall on April

The post Mission Taco Joint 10-Year Anniversary Party appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, with special guest Amulets, will perform live at The Pageant on April 6.

The post Unknown Mortal Orchestra with Amulets appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

It’s 1934, just after midnight, and a snowstorm has stopped the opulent Orient Express sleeper train in its tracks. A wealthy American businessman is discovered dead, and the brilliant and

The post Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express – The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Opening the 2023 season of Max & Louie Productions, What the Constitution Means to Me, a highly impactful and timely memoir by Heidi Schreck, will run from April 6 to 23

The post What the Constitution Means to Me appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

St. Louis University researchers urge citizen scientists to track mosquito populations this summer via the Mosquito Alert app to help them better understand where mosquito hotbeds are in St. Louis.

A man who robbed a gas station and whom police believe is armed and dangerous has now been found and taken into custody in Jefferson County, Thursday.

Electric scooter company Bird will return to St. Louis this weekend to test some of the new regulations in the city. In a press release, St. Louis Public Safety Director Monte Chambers said the company will have a "soft relaunch" in the city, with no more than 50 scooters downtown starting Friday. The company will use this weekend to ensure its technology will work to abide by the city's new rules. The new permit requires companies to cap speeds and limit the number of scooters in one area, and…

by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Influential Democratic lawmakers have called for immediate investigations and vowed to create stricter ethics rules following a ProPublica report that revealed Justice Clarence Thomas has, for decades, failed to disclose luxury trips he received from a real estate magnate and conservative megadonor.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee — influential for its role in vetting and confirming Supreme Court nominees — said his panel is calling for an “enforceable code of conduct” for justices. “The ProPublica report is a call to action, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act,” Durbin said.

Lawmakers and advocates have long called for codified ethics rules that prohibit the type of behavior uncovered by ProPublica’s investigation.

For more than two decades, records and interviews show, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow without disclosing them. Thomas has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe, flown on Crow’s jet and typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks, the investigation found.

These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices and other federal officials to disclose most gifts, ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.

A Supreme Court spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the lawmakers’ calls for investigations.

Thomas has not responded to ProPublica’s questions about his travel. Crow told ProPublica that Thomas “never asked for any of this hospitality” and that his treatment of the justice was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”

Crow said he has never discussed a pending case with Thomas. “We have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” he said.

While justices are required by law to disclose most gifts, there are few rules on what gifts justices can accept. That’s in contrast to the other branches of government. Members of Congress are generally prohibited from taking gifts worth $50 or more and would need pre-approval from an ethics committee to take many of the trips Thomas has accepted from Crow.

On Thursday, a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers said Thomas’ failure to disclose the luxury vacations is an example of why public trust in the Supreme Court is faltering.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in a statement that Americans’ confidence in the Supreme Court is “tanking because of this kind of conduct.”

“We need answers,” he said. “And the Court needs a code of ethics.”

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in a statement that the Supreme Court has lost its ethical compass, calling for Chief Justice John Roberts to open an investigation. “It’s no wonder that the American people are losing faith in the idea that they can get a fair shake before the nation’s highest court when they see a Supreme Court justice openly flouting basic disclosure rules in order to pal around with billionaires in secret,” he said.

This year, Whitehouse and others introduced a bill that would strengthen the Supreme Court’s disclosure and recusal rules, among other reforms. In his statement, the senator called for a hearing and vote on the bill.

“The Supreme Court urgently needs an enforceable system for holding justices accountable,” he said.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Americans deserve a judiciary that is “accountable to the rule of law, not wealthy Republican donors.” ProPublica’s reporting, she added, “is a stark reminder that judges should be held to the highest ethical standards and free from conflicts of interest.”

So far, no current GOP lawmakers have addressed the revelations publicly. Sen. Lindsey Graham, ranking member for Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.

At least two Democratic representatives have called for Thomas to be impeached or resign.

“Justice Thomas must resign immediately,” said Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Failing that, Johnson said, fellow justices should censure Thomas and the Department of Justice should investigate potential federal crimes “to determine whether Justice Thomas remains fit to retain his license to practice law.”

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter: “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”

Do you have any tips on the courts? Josh Kaplan can be reached by email at joshua.kaplan@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org or by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.

Brett Murphy contributed reporting.

Enjoy St. Louis Blues ice hockey at Enterprise Center.

The post St. Louis Blues vs. New York Rangers appeared first on Explore St. Louis.